Global remittance platform

• US 20060106701A1
• Filed: 10/27/2005
• Published: 05/18/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wells Fargo Bank NA (Wells Fargo & Company)
• Original Assignee: Wells Fargo Bank NA (Wells Fargo & Company)
• Inventors: Gutierrez, Eugene, Ayala, Daniel I.
• Granted Patent: US 8,407,140 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

The invention provides a remittance platform in which an enterprise, such as Wells Fargo, serves as a remittance transfer agent, where the remittance function is integrated with a bank. The invention allows access to the remittance program by both account holders with the enterprise and persons who do not have an account with the enterprise. The person accessing the service may pick the remittance service they want and the country they want. However, the service is not anchored to a particular account and can therefore work with both bank partners and non-bank partners and account holders and non-account holders. Further, the system may be private-labeled. Additionally, the invention provides a mechanism that allows one to send money easily to other countries and it allows bank partners to participate in the program easily as well. This is possible because the enterprise provides all of the processing in an integrated fashion.

Claims

1. A system that remits funds from a remitter to a beneficiary, comprising:

a store vision teller system (SVT) for creating and transmitting a remittance transaction and a phone bank component for creating and transmitting a remittance transaction;

an enterprise financial system that receives said transmitted remittance transaction data from either said SVT and said phone bank component and that processes said transmitted remittance transaction data and outputs said processed transaction data;

a remittance network member account that receives and stores said processed transaction data to reconcile and settle said remittance transaction;

an international remittance engine (IRE) that receives and processes said processed transaction data to create a first output file in a predetermined message format and to output said formatted file to an external remittance network member system;

an enterprise remittance general ledger system that receives a second output file from said IRE and uses said second output file to send a reconcile and settlement message to said remittance network member account for reconcilement and settlement; and

a demand deposit account that receives funds associated with said remittance transaction from said enterprise remittance general ledger system resulting in funds being available in said remittance network member system.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the IRE maintains and provides information related to countries comprising:

country;

bank;

currency supported; and

methods available to receive funds.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the IRE comprises:

a foreign exchange calculator; and

a remittance modeling service that supports remittance message exchange between said enterprise and said remittance network member.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said remittance transaction can be any of:

cash-to-cash;

account-to-cash;

cash-to-account;

account-to-instrument;

account-to-card; and

account-to-account.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said predetermined message format can be any of:

proprietary to said enterprise;

SFT; and

SWIFT.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said SVT further comprises:

in account-to-anything products, a disclosure is added to a consumer account agreement booklet and a consumer account fee and information schedule, and an annual privacy policy is distributed in accordance with requirements for all types of accounts;

in anything-to-anything products at remittance, a disclosure is provided to and signed by a remitter for each individual remittance, printed in both English and the customer'"'"'s preferred language; and

in cash-to-anything products, a new service agreement form at enrollment is provided for privacy/terms and conditions, available in English and in the customer'"'"'s preferred language, as a separate enclosure provided to the remitter at the time of enrollment.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein for account-to-account, a remitter can send money at any time during the day to a remittance network member bank beneficiary account or send regularly scheduled payments to said beneficiary account;

for account-to-cash, a remitter can send money at any time during the day to remittance network member bank for cash pick up and multiple beneficiaries can be set up on said account to receive cash;

for account-to-instrument, a remitter can send money at any time during the day to remittance network member bank for payment via negotiable instrument and multiple beneficiaries can be set up on said account to receive negotiable instruments; and

for account to Card, a remitter can send money at any time during the day to a remittance network member bank to be given to a beneficiary in a form of some prepaid card issued by said remittance network member bank and multiple beneficiaries can be set up on said account to receive cards.

8. A method that remits funds from a remitter to a beneficiary, comprising the steps of:

providing a store vision teller system (SVT) for creating and transmitting a remittance transaction and a phone bank component for creating and transmitting a remittance transaction;

providing an enterprise financial system that receives said transmitted remittance transaction data from either said SVT and said phone bank component and that processes said transmitted remittance transaction data and outputs said processed transaction data;

providing a remittance network member account that receives and stores said processed transaction data to reconcile and settle said remittance transaction;

providing an international remittance engine (IRE) that receives and processes said processed transaction data to create a first output file in a predetermined message format and to output said formatted file to an external remittance network member system;

providing an enterprise remittance general ledger system that receives a second output file from said IRE and uses said second output file to send a reconcile and settlement message to said remittance network member account for reconcilement and settlement; and

providing a demand deposit account that receives funds associated with said remittance transaction from said enterprise remittance general ledger system resulting in funds being available in said remittance network member system.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the IRE maintains and provides information related to countries comprising:

country;

bank;

currency supported; and

methods available to receive funds.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the IRE comprises:

a foreign exchange calculator; and

a remittance modeling service that supports remittance message exchange between said enterprise and said remittance network member.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein said remittance transaction can be any of:

cash-to-cash;

account-to-cash;

cash-to-account;

account-to-instrument;

account-to-card; and

account-to-account.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein said predetermined message format can be any of:

proprietary to said enterprise;

SFT; and

SWIFT.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein said SVT further comprises:

in account-to-anything products, a disclosure is added to a consumer account agreement booklet and a consumer account fee and information schedule, and an annual privacy policy is distributed in accordance with requirements for all types of accounts;

in anything-to-anything products at remittance, a disclosure is provided to and signed by a remitter for each individual remittance, printed in both English and the customer'"'"'s preferred language; and

in cash-to-anything products, a new service agreement form at enrollment is provided for privacy/terms and conditions, available in English and in the customer'"'"'s preferred language, as a separate enclosure provided to the remitter at the time of enrollment.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein for account-to-account, a remitter can send money at any time during the day to a remittance network member bank beneficiary account or send regularly scheduled payments to said beneficiary account;

for account-to-cash, a remitter can send money at any time during the day to remittance network member bank for cash pick up and multiple beneficiaries can be set up on said account to receive cash;

for account-to-instrument, a remitter can send money at any time during the day to remittance network member bank for payment via negotiable instrument and multiple beneficiaries can be set up on said account to receive negotiable instruments; and

for account to Card, a remitter can send money at any time during the day to a remittance network member bank to be given to a beneficiary in a form of some prepaid card issued by said remittance network member bank and multiple beneficiaries can be set up on said account to receive cards.